The main purpose of this thesis was to compare GAC adsorption method, VOCs incinerationmethod and Non-treatment alternative by using LCA to find which method or alternative isenvironmentally preferable. The LCA framework proposed by ISO 14040 (1997) has beenconsidered in this research. The comparison was made by considering a flue gas contaminatedby toluene (with three different concentration 100, 1000, 2000 mg/m3). The plant locationwhere the polluted flue gas is emitted has been assumed to be located in Borås, Sweden. Theflow rate of emitted flue gas was 10000m3/hr. The present thesis report contains two mainparts.The results of LCA showed that when the toluene concentration is low (< 100 mg/m3), GACadsorption method, Non-treatment alternative and VOCs incineration method are respectivelypreferable from environmental point of view. On the other side, when the tolueneconcentration of inlet stream is high (>1000 mg/m3), the order of GAC adsorption method,incineration and Non-treatment alternative is more desirable. Furthermore, the resultsillustrated that as toluene plays the role of fuel as a hydrocarbon, VOCs incineration methodis much more suitable when toluene concentration is high due to lower demand on additionalfuel. In the other words, high toluene concentration of influent leads to less environmentalimpact when VOCs incineration method is exploited. Conversely, the environmental impactof GAC adsorption method is increased when the inlet concentration of toluene is escalated.In overall, the weighted result showed that GAC adsorption method is the most preferablemethod while Non-treatment alternative is the worst.

The use of microalgae culture to convert CO2 from power plant flue gases into biomass that are readily converted into biofuels offers a new frame of opportunities to enhance, compliment or replace fossil-fuel-use. Apart from being renewable, microalgae also have the capacity to utilise materials from a variety of wastewater and the ability to yield both liquid and gaseous biofuels. However, the processes of cultivation, incorporation of a production system for power plant waste flue gas use, algae harvesting, and oil extraction from the biomass have many challenges. Using SimaPro software, Life cycle Assessment (LCA) of the challenges limiting the microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) biofuel production process was performed to study algae-based pathway for producing biofuels. Attention was paid to material use, energy consumed and the environmental burdens associated with the production processes. The goal was to determine the weak spots within the production system and identify changes in particular data-set that can lead to and lower material use, energy consumption and lower environmental impacts than the baseline microalgae biofuel production system. The analysis considered a hypothetical transesterification and Anaerobic Digestion (AD) transformation of algae-to- biofuel process. Life cycle Inventory (LCI) characterisation results of the baseline biodiesel (BD) transesterification scenario indicates that heating to get the biomass to 90% DWB accounts for 64% of the total input energy, while electrical energy and fertilizer obligations represents 19% and 16% respectively. Also, Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) results of the baseline BD production scenario show high proportional contribution of electricity and heat energy obligations for most impact categories considered relative to other resources. This is attributed to the concentration/drying requirement of algae biomass in order to ease downstream processes of lipid extraction and subsequent transesterification of extracted lipids into BD. Thus, four prospective alternative production scenarios were successfully characterised to evaluate the extent of their impact scenarios on the production system with regards to lowering material use, lower energy consumption and lower environmental burdens than the standard algae biofuel production system. A 55.3% reduction in mineral use obligation was evaluated as the most significant impact reduction due to the integration of 100% recycling of production harvest water for the AD production system. Recycling also saw water demand reduced from 3726 kg (freshwater).kgBD- 1 to 591kg (freshwater).kgBD- 1 after accounting for evaporative losses/biomass drying for the BD transesterification production process. Also, the use of wastewater/sea water as alternative growth media for the BD production system, indicated potential savings of: 4.2 MJ (11.8%) in electricity/heat obligation, 10.7% reductions for climate change impact, and 87% offset in mineral use requirement relative to the baseline production system. Likewise, LCIA characterisation comparison results comparing the baseline production scenarios with that of a set-up with co-product economic allocation consideration show very interesting outcomes. Indicating -12 MJ surplus (-33%) reductions for fossil fuels resource use impact category, 52.7% impact reductions for mineral use impact and 56.6% reductions for land use impact categories relative to the baseline BD production process model. These results show the importance of allocation consideration to LCA as a decision support tool. Overall, process improvements that are needed to optimise economic viability also improve the life cycle environmental impacts or sustainability of the production systems. Results obtained have been observed to agree reasonably with Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis, with the production scenario proposing the exploitation of wastewater/sea water to culture algae biomass offering the best result outcome. This study may have implications for additional resources such as production facility and its construction process, feedstock processing logistics and transport infrastructure which are excluded. Future LCA study will require extensive consideration of these additional resources such as: facility size and its construction, better engineering data for water transfer, combined heat and power plant efficiency estimates and the fate of long-term emissions such as organic nitrogen in the AD digestate. Conclusions were drawn and suggestions proffered for further study.

Resumo: Em virtude da pressão exercida pelos diversos segmentos da sociedade, para que o setor da construção civil se torne ambientalmente mais adequado, muito tem se discutido a respeito do aproveitamento de resíduos na produção de materiais de construção e uma infinidade de pesquisas vem sendo desenvolvidas com este objetivo. Porém, antes que estes produtos possam ser chamados de "sustentáveis" e que efetivamente um sitema de reciclagem seja implantado, é imprescindível que se compreendam todas as consequências envolvidas nesta ação e, principalmente, quais os reais ganhos para o ambiente (e para o setor) se isto ocorrer. Para que se possa obter um quadro geral dos impactos ambientais associados a estes produtos, uma das ferramentas mais utilizadas é a Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV), que vem sendo cada vez mais aceita como resposta às indagações ambientais do novo milênio. Diante do exposto, o objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir para um maior entendimento a respeito dos impactos ambientais na construção civil, por meio da realização de um estudo comparativo de ACV dos diferentes tipos de chapas de partículas fabricadas a partir de resíduos, que vêm sendo desenvolvidas na Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), campus de Bauru. As chapas foram fabricadas a partir dos seguintes resíduos: bagaço de cana-de-açúcar (Saccharum spp); folhas caulinares do bambu (Dendrocalamus giganteus); cavacos provenientes do beneficiamento das madeiras pinos (Pinus elliotti) e imbuia (Ocotea porosa). O estudo foi desenvolvido com base nas orientações metodológicas da série de Normas NBR ISO 14040 (2009), a unidade funcional adotada foi o m² das chapas e para avaliação dos impactos foi empregado o método EDIP. De acordo os resultados, as chapas produzidas a partir das folhas do bambu apresentaram o menor potencial de impacto ambiental, na maioria das categorias avaliadas. Em ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Regarding the pressure from various sectors of the society, the construction industry is becoming more concerned about the environment impacts associated at its activities, and recently, particular attention has being devoted to the use of waste in construction materials ans several research projects have been developed in this field. However, before labeling these products as "sustainable" and before initiate the production of any product based on recycling, it is necessary to comprehend all the steps involved in this action, and mainly, to quantify the real gains for the environment (and for the industry) associated to it. In the evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with these products, the most used tool is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is being increasingly accepted in research for the environmental goals of the new millennium. Therefore, the main objective of this master thesis was to study the environmental impacts in the construction, namely through the completion of a comparative LCA of different types of particleboards made of residues, which have being developed at Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Campus of Bauru. The boards were manufactured using the following residues: sugar cane bagasse (saccharum spp); bamboo stalk leaves (Dendrocalamus giganteus); pieces from the processing of pine wood (Pinus elliottii) and imbuia (Ocotea porosa). The study was developed based on the methodological guidelines included in the standards series NBR ISO 14040 (2009). The functional unit adopted was the square meter of boards, and the EDIP method was employed for the impacts assessment. The results demonstrate that the boards produced of bamboo stalk leaves had the least environmental impact potential in most the evaluated categories. In contrast, the boards made of pine particles showed the largest environmental impact potential. Among the factors that most ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Orientador: Rosane Aparecida Gomes Battistelle / Coorientador: Ivaldo De Domenico Valarelli / Banca: Humberto S. A. Varum / Banca: Adilson Renofio / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-09-24Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:54:27Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 santos_mfn_me_bauru.pdf: 2258051 bytes, checksum: ed707b2833785d94e16b821f4bdc2630 (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Em virtude da pressão exercida pelos diversos segmentos da sociedade, para que o setor da construção civil se torne ambientalmente mais adequado, muito tem se discutido a respeito do aproveitamento de resíduos na produção de materiais de construção e uma infinidade de pesquisas vem sendo desenvolvidas com este objetivo. Porém, antes que estes produtos possam ser chamados de sustentáveis e que efetivamente um sitema de reciclagem seja implantado, é imprescindível que se compreendam todas as consequências envolvidas nesta ação e, principalmente, quais os reais ganhos para o ambiente (e para o setor) se isto ocorrer. Para que se possa obter um quadro geral dos impactos ambientais associados a estes produtos, uma das ferramentas mais utilizadas é a Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV), que vem sendo cada vez mais aceita como resposta às indagações ambientais do novo milênio. Diante do exposto, o objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir para um maior entendimento a respeito dos impactos ambientais na construção civil, por meio da realização de um estudo comparativo de ACV dos diferentes tipos de chapas de partículas fabricadas a partir de resíduos, que vêm sendo desenvolvidas na Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), campus de Bauru. As chapas foram fabricadas a partir dos seguintes resíduos: bagaço de cana-de-açúcar (Saccharum spp); folhas caulinares do bambu (Dendrocalamus giganteus); cavacos provenientes do beneficiamento das madeiras pinos (Pinus elliotti) e imbuia (Ocotea porosa). O estudo foi desenvolvido com base nas orientações metodológicas da série de Normas NBR ISO 14040 (2009), a unidade funcional adotada foi o m² das chapas e para avaliação dos impactos foi empregado o método EDIP. De acordo os resultados, as chapas produzidas a partir das folhas do bambu apresentaram o menor potencial de impacto ambiental, na maioria das categorias avaliadas. Em... / Regarding the pressure from various sectors of the society, the construction industry is becoming more concerned about the environment impacts associated at its activities, and recently, particular attention has being devoted to the use of waste in construction materials ans several research projects have been developed in this field. However, before labeling these products as sustainable and before initiate the production of any product based on recycling, it is necessary to comprehend all the steps involved in this action, and mainly, to quantify the real gains for the environment (and for the industry) associated to it. In the evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with these products, the most used tool is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is being increasingly accepted in research for the environmental goals of the new millennium. Therefore, the main objective of this master thesis was to study the environmental impacts in the construction, namely through the completion of a comparative LCA of different types of particleboards made of residues, which have being developed at Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Campus of Bauru. The boards were manufactured using the following residues: sugar cane bagasse (saccharum spp); bamboo stalk leaves (Dendrocalamus giganteus); pieces from the processing of pine wood (Pinus elliottii) and imbuia (Ocotea porosa). The study was developed based on the methodological guidelines included in the standards series NBR ISO 14040 (2009). The functional unit adopted was the square meter of boards, and the EDIP method was employed for the impacts assessment. The results demonstrate that the boards produced of bamboo stalk leaves had the least environmental impact potential in most the evaluated categories. In contrast, the boards made of pine particles showed the largest environmental impact potential. Among the factors that most ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Le développement durable est la conceptualisation de la transition imposée de la Société humaine vers un modede développement soutenable pour la planète, pour trouver une solution de sortie à la crise de l’Environnement. Acet égard, l’écoconception est l’une des solutions que le monde industriel et entrepreneurial se propose de mettreen application. Elle consiste à prendre en compte les impacts environnementaux sur l’ensemble du cycle de vied’un produit (bien ou service) lors de la conception de celui-ci. L’intégration de la dimension Environnementsoulève une triple complexité : (i) celle liée à la nature multicritère de la dimension Environnement, (ii) celle liéeà la compréhension de la dimension Environnement par les acteurs de la conception de produits dont la résistancepeut être un frein à une bonne intégration, et (iii) celle liée au processus de conception et d’innovation d’un produit,spécialement dans le cas des produits complexes. Or malgré la multitude d’outils d’écoconception qui a étédéveloppée, peu de sujets de recherche s’intéressent à la prise en compte à la fois des aspects techniques etorganisationnels, lors de l’intégration de la dimension Environnement en phase d’innovation d’un produitcomplexe. Cette thèse vise donc à expérimenter, chez un constructeur d’automobiles, une stratégie d’intégrationde l’évaluation environnementale d’innovations incrémentales nommée E3PICS (Methodology of an Evolutiveintegration of the Evaluation of the Environmental Performances of Innovative Complex Sub-systems). Mise enforme par des contraintes à la fois techniques et organisationnelles, la stratégie E3PICS emploie une démarcheprogressive d’intégration d’un référentiel évolutif d’écoconception dans les processus d’ingénierie avancéed’éléments innovants qui seront raccordés à des projets de développement des véhicules. La première étape estcelle de la conception itérative du référentiel évolutif d’écoconception avec l’équipe écoconception (au sein duservice Environnement) et les pilotes d’innovations, permettant ainsi un apprentissage croisé. La deuxième étapeest celle de l’accompagnement de l’ensemble des pilotes d’innovations dans l’utilisation systématique duréférentiel d’écoconception. La troisième étape consiste à développer un outil analytique d’évaluation de l’impactd’innovations sur la recyclabilité en fin de vie des véhicules. Elle nécessite la création de modèles de véhiculesafin de contourner le manque de données sur le système complet en cours de conception et de faire une projectioncet impact. La quatrième et dernière étape concerne le développement d’un deuxième outil analytique pourl’évaluation de l’impact d’innovations sur la performance environnementale sur le cycle de vie des véhicules. Dela même manière, cet outil nécessite une méthode de développement de modèles environnementaux de véhicules ;cependant, pour les impacts environnementaux calculés sur le cycle de vie, contrairement à la recyclabilité qui estcalculée sur le véhicule en fin de vie, ces modèles sont basés sur le traitement par classification ascendantehiérarchique de résultats d’analyse de cycle de vie de véhicules. Les expérimentations ont été réalisées chez PSAPeugeot Citroën. La stratégie E3PICS a permis d’intégrer dans les processus d’innovation, l’utilisation duréférentiel d’écoconception et de systématiser son utilisation, dans l’optique d’une amélioration continue pérennedes véhicules du constructeur. / Sustainable development is the conceptualization of transition imposed from human society towards a sustainableway of development for the world to find a solution to the crisis of the Environment. In this regard, ecodesign isone of the solutions that the industrial and business world proposes to implement. It consists of taking into accountthe environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of a product (good or service) in the design of it. Integratingthe Environment dimension raises a triple complexity: (i) the one related to the multi-criteria nature of theEnvironment dimension, (ii) the one related to understanding the Environment dimension by actors designingproducts who may resist and be a barrier to successful integration, and (iii) the one related to process design andinnovation of a product, especially in the case of complex products. But despite the multitude of ecodesign toolsthat has been developed, few research topics are interested in taking into account both technical and organizationalaspects, while integrating environment in the innovation phase of a complex product. Therefore this thesis aims toexperiment, by a car manufacturer, an integration strategy of the environmental evaluation of incrementalinnovations, named E3PICS (Methodology of an Evolutive integration of the Evaluation of the EnvironmentalPerformances of Innovative Complex Sub-systems). Framed by constraints on the technical and organizationalconstraints, E3PICS strategy employs a progressive approach to integrate a scalable ecodesign repository inadvanced process engineering of innovative features that are connected to development projects vehicles. The firststep is the iterative design of the scalable ecodesign repository with the ecodesign team (in the EnvironmentDepartment) and innovation leaders, allowing cross learning. The second step is to accompany all the innovationleaders in the systematic use of the ecodesign repository. The third step is to develop an analytical tool for assessingthe impact of innovations on the recycling end of life vehicles. It requires the creation of models of vehicles tobypass the lack of data on the complete system under design and project impact. The fourth and final step is thedevelopment of a second analytical tool for assessing the impact of innovations on environmental performanceover the life cycle of vehicles. Similarly, the tool requires a method of developing environmental models ofvehicles; however, for environmental impacts calculated on the life cycle, unlike recyclability which is calculatedon the vehicle end of life, these models are based on the treatment by hierarchical clustering of vehicle life cycleassessment results . The experiments were performed at PSA Peugeot Citroen. The E3PICS strategy has helped tointegrate the processes of innovation using the eco-design repository and systematize its use in the context of asustainable continuous improvement of vehicle manufacturer.

Decision makers are challenged by complex sustainability problems within the socio-ecological system. In response, a vast range of sustainability-related methods/tools have been developed, each focusing on certain aspects of this challenge. Without a unifying theory it is, however, unclear how these methods/tools can support strategic progress towards sustainability and how they relate to each other. This need for clarity and structure urged some sustainability pioneers to start develop an overarching framework for strategic sustainable development (SSD), often called “The Natural Step (TNS) framework”, from the NGO that has facilitated its development and application, or the “backcasting from sustainability principles (BSP) framework” from its main operational philosophy. The aim of this thesis is to study if, and in that case how, this framework can aid coordination and further development of various sustainability-related methods/tools, specifically to increase their capacity to support sustainable product development (SPD). Life-cycle assessment (LCA), “templates” for SPD and systems modeling and simulation (SMS) are the methods/tools in focus. A new strategic life-cycle management approach is presented, in which the main sustainability aspects, LCA “impacts”, are identified through socioecological sustainability principles. This creates new opportunities to avoid the reductionism that often follows from traditional system boundaries or from a focus on specific impacts. Ideas of how this approach can inform the studied tools are given. This may eventually lead to a whole integrated toolbox for SPD (a “Design Space”). As part of such a Design Space, a new “template” approach for SPD is developed. A case study of a sustainability assessment of TVs at the Matsushita Electric Group indicates that this approach can create a quick overview of critical sustainability aspects in the early part of the product development process and facilitate communication of this overview between top management, product developers, and other stakeholders. A potential integration between BSP and SMS is also discussed. It is suggested that this should start with BSP to create lists of critical presentday flows and practices, ideas of long term solutions and visions, and a first rough idea about prioritized early investments. After that, SMS should be applied to study the interrelationships between the listed items, in order to create more robust and refined analyses of the problems at hand, possible solutions and investment paths, while constantly coupling back to the sustainability principles and guidelines of the BSP framework. v Decision makers seem to need more of an overview and of simplicity around sustainability issues. A general conclusion is, however, that it is important that this is achieved without a loss of relevant aspects and their interrelations. Over-simplifications might lead to sub-optimized designs and investments paths. Combining the BSP framework with more detailed methods/tools seems to be a promising approach to finding the right balance and to get synergies between various methods/tools.

Packaging has been on the environmental agenda for decades. It has been discussed and debated within the society mainly as an environmental problem. Production, distribution and consumption of food and drinks contribute significant to the environmental impact. However, consumers in the EU waste about 20% of the food they buy. The function of packaging in reducing the amount of food losses is an important but often neglected environmental issue. This thesis focuses on the functions of packaging that can be used to preserve resources efficiently and reduce the environmental impact of the food-packaging system. The service perspective is used to increase knowledge about consumer interaction with packages. Fifteen packaging attributes, for example, ‘easy to empty’, ‘hygienic’ and ‘contain the right quantity’, were identified as influencing the amount of food losses at the consumer. The result showed that there are potentials to both increase consumer satisfaction and decrease the environmental impact of the food-packaging system, when new packaging design reduces food losses. A model was developed that calculates the balance of environmental impact between reduction of food losses, and more packaging material. The result showed that it can be environmentally motivated to increase the environmental impact of packaging, if the amount of food losses is reduced. This is especially true for food items with high environmental impact, e.g. meat and dairy products, and for food items that have a high share of loss, e.g. bread. I have also explored to what extent packaging can influence food losses in households. The study showed that about 20% to 25% of household food waste was related to packaging. The households noted three packaging attributes as the main causes for food losses; ‘too big packaging’, ‘difficult to empty’ and ‘best-before-date’. Finally there is a discussion of packaging research in the context of sustainability principles, and suggestions for further research. / <p>Paper IV was still a manuscript at the time of the thesis defense.</p>

Ces dernières années, les législations dans le domaine du textile et de l’environnement se sont multipliées. Au niveau européen, les directive IPPC , REACH, ont obligé les industriels Européens à prendre en compte les aspects environnementaux de leurs produits et services. En France, suite au Grenelle de l’environnement, de nouvelles obligations apparaissent concernant les déchets textiles ou l’affichage environnemental (Grenelle environnement 2011). Parallèlement, une prise de conscience internationale de la nécessité de concevoir des produits limitant l’utilisation de ressources non renouvelables et diminuant leur impact environnemental, est apparue. L’éco conception implique la mise en oeuvre de nouvelles matières et de nouveaux procédés. L’ACV, analyse du cycle de vie est un outil qui permet l’évaluation des impacts environnementaux. Cette thèse a été lancée par Bureau Veritas CODDE et le laboratoire GEMTEX, suite à l’identification d’un besoin significatif de développement de données et méthodologies ACV pour le secteur du textile. En effet, les méthodologies et les outils existants ne sont pas adaptés à l’évaluation de l’impact environnemental des produits textiles car le secteur présente des caractéristiques spécifiques contraignantes. Ces outils doivent permettre autant aux concepteurs, qu’aux fabricants et distributeurs de réaliser des ACV à des niveaux de granulométrie différents. / In recent years, the European textile industry and textiles imports have had to comply with an increasing number of environmental policies. Emissions from industrial installations have been subject to EU-wide legislation for over 10 years: the IPPC Directive, the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)… Since 2007, European textile producers also have to comply with a substantial number of obligations under REACH. Furthermore, in France environmental labelling for certain convenience goods (including textile products) might become mandatory in 2020. In parallel, national awareness appeared on the necessity of designing consumer products with limited use of natural resources and decreased the environmental impacts. Eco-design involves the implementation of new materials and new processes. Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, is a tool that enables the assessment of environmental impacts. This thesis was initiated by Bureau Veritas CODDE Company and the GEMTEX laboratory, following on the identification of a significant need for the development of LCA data and methods in the textile sector. This is because the existing methods and tools are not suitable for the environmental impact assessment of textile products since the textile sector presents specific constraining characteristics. These tools should enable designers, manufacturers and retailers to perform LCA on their products.

This diploma thesis deals with assessment of environmental load by selected plastic molding technology. The first part is focused on the ecological legislation in the field of mechanical engineering, which also includes the production of plastics, and describes various methodologies for assessing the environmental load. Another chapter is an overview of polymers and their properties as well as the possibilities of plastics processing with description of individual types of production methods. The practical part of this work describes the composition of the produced piece and the injection molding process of plastic production. Its two methods (direct gating and hot sprue method) are analyzed and then the environmental load evaluation is performed using the LCA method – product life cycle assessment. The environmental load of both production methods is assessed.

The presented doctoral thesis is focused on environmental impact assessment of basic engineering materials used in a production machine construction. Ecological profile of the machine itself develops already in the phase of its design. It is not only about the choice of future machine parameters and materials that it is built from, but also about technologies used for its manufacture and operation conditions of the finished machine (consumption of energy and service fluids). The thesis occupies in detail with environmental impact analysis of the production machine design from the viewpoint of material production that mentioned machine consists of. The output from the performed analysis is methodology for evaluating of machine design from the viewpoint of greenhouse gas emissions. Created methodology enables evaluating of machine ecological profile and its possible adjustments even during pre-production stage. In the first part of the thesis the analysis of current legislation in the field of fighting against climate changes, reducing of products energy consumption and increasing of production machines energy efficiency is presented. Also in this part of the thesis description of methods that were used to achieve thesis goals is stated. Furthermore analysis of production machine as a system of structural components that fulfil the certain functions and description of used basic engineering materials are presented. The second part of the thesis is devoted to environmental impact analysis of the production machine design process. There the design process and environmental impact of machine design are described. This is followed by description of production machine life cycle and detailed analysis of undesirable substances emissions emitted during pre-production phases of machine life cycle (i.e. during the raw materials extraction and materials production). From this analysis the particular constituents’ pre-production phases which are sources of undesirable substances emissions (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions) were derived. The thesis also includes analysis of these constituents’ life cycles and description of electric power generation as a basic constituent of any phase of product life cycle. In this part of the thesis calculations of particular fuel type’s amounts that is required to produce 1 MWh of electric power and carbon dioxide amount produced during electric power generation are presented. The third part of the thesis contains created models of manufacturing processes of basic engineering materials and calculations of related emissions of selected greenhouse gases. The practical output from this part of the thesis is methodology that enables environmental impact assessment of machine design from the viewpoint of engineering materials used in its construction.